District A creates graffiti task force

THE CLEAN TEAMGroup's goal is to remove illegal markings within 24 hours

KIM JACKSON, Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

Published
6:30 am CST, Thursday, January 26, 2006

HOUSTON City Councilwoman Toni Lawrence and northwest Houston residents have mobilized a volunteer task force aimed at eliminating all traces of graffiti from their neighborhood.

Lawrence said the new District A Graffiti Task Force will combat the growing problems of ''gang" and ''tagger" graffiti in her council district.

The area encompasses businesses and neighborhoods in the Houston city limits between U.S. 290 and Interstate 10.

Areas included are from just inside Loop 610 west to Peek Road; north of U.S. 290 between Loop 610 and Little York and in the Willowbrook area.

Lawrence said she created the volunteer task force because the city of Houston has a limited number of employees and police officers who can investigate and clean up graffiti.

"Given the city's budget constraints, we had to come up with another source of manpower," Lawrence said.

"We have a lot of people in District A interested in helping. We are going big time with this effort."

Looking ahead

Mike Knox
, a Spring Branch resident who heads the District A Graffiti Task Force, said the ultimate goal is to have a full-time, paid staff member patrolling District A streets in a graffiti abatement van equipped with materials needed to immediately paint over the markings.

''Eventually we want to be able to remove graffiti within 24 hours of its appearance," said Knox, a former Houston Police Department officer who worked on the city's first anti-gang force and is the author of Gangsta in the House: Understanding Gang Culture.

''That will send out the message to gang members and graffiti artists that graffiti is not tolerated here."

Knox said he already has started recruiting volunteers to be part of the group's ''graffiti clean team."

The volunteer group will serve as the task force's first line of defense before a full-time staff member is hired, and would continue to help out beyond that point with neighborhood clean-ups and graffiti sightings.

Lawrence and Knox said they also are calling on all District A residents to help out with a district-wide graffiti clean-up day — Feb. 18 — that will launch the task force's efforts.

The event is scheduled in conjunction with the annual District A Clean-up, sponsored by the Houston Neighborhood Protection Corps' department.

''We want to clean up graffiti in every neighborhood in District A that day," Knox said.

Neighborhood Protection Corps officials and Houston Police Department officers who patrol District A say the new graffiti task force will be a strong weapon in the war on graffiti.

Sgt. Derek Spier, administrator for the Houston Police Department's Neighborhood Protection Corps, said as of December, the department is responsible for abating — or painting over — graffiti city-wide. Before that, the Mayor's anti-gang office was in charge of that program.

Spier said residents should direct calls about graffiti sightings to the Neighborhood Protection Corps through the city of Houston's 3-1-1 Service Helpline, which is available to Houston residents from 6 a.m.-midnight, seven days a week.

The corps is training all of its inspectors on the abatement process, which includes documenting graffiti, obtaining permission from property owners to paint over it and then supervising the individuals — usually Harris County adult probationers — who do the work.

But even with multiple inspectors on the job, it is tough to clean up all graffiti in Houston quickly, Spier said.

HPD Sgt. Hank Hernandez, who supervises the Spring Branch Storefront's Differential Response Team, said the storefront often receives complaints from people who have seen and reported graffiti, asking why it has not yet been cleaned up.

''It will be great to have the task force in place because we need to clean up graffiti as soon as it appears," Hernandez said.

''Graffiti is a magnet for crime."

Knox said the District A Graffiti Task Force would gather information on graffiti sightings in the area from the Neighborhood Protection Corps, and police substations, as well as a fledgling network of District A residents and business owners in the community.

''We want to get everyone on board," Knox said.

''We want to raise property values in District A, as well as feeling of safety in this community.''

Knox said the task force will operate as a nonprofit organization — through his established 501(c)3 Veritas Foundation — and welcomes monetary and in-kind donations to the cause.